A brief introductory survey is given of the field of optical plasma spectroscopy, with special reference to the atomic processes which play an important role in tokamak and stellarator plasmas: in particular, atomic line radiation and radiative recombination, collisional ionization and excitation, and charge exchange with neutral atomic beams. The effect of the confining magnetic field on the spectra is briefly considered. As illustrative examples, a simple collisional-radiative model for neutral atomic beams, and the determination of ion temperatures from Doppler-broadened spectra, are discussed.